


John Reese, Megan and Andrew, Part 1

by SVG67



Category: Person Of Interest - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 19:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SVG67/pseuds/SVG67
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After transcribing Cura Te Ipsum for the forum,  I made several observations concerning the characters and how they interacted. The following observations concern the two related scenes near the end; the scene in the diner with John and Megan, and the scene at the vacation home with John and Andrew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	John Reese, Megan and Andrew, Part 1

Observations 

Megan  
Megan has a clear, well thought out plan to eliminate the man whom she holds responsible for her sister’s death. She is half way through her plan, when Megan is confronted by John, someone whom she has seen only once before.

He is basically a stranger and yet he knows all about her. He knows all about Andrew. And he knows all about her plan for revenge. The man sitting calmly and quietly across the table from her, has her dead to rights in a felony with intent to harm. Megan has no idea what he intends to do with this information or if he will ... demand ... something from her. Something along the lines of what her sister endured. Tears stream down her face and her voice is choked with fear and unbearable sadness. 

Megan has no choice but to listen to John, to this stranger, as he expresses his concern for her. Not because her plan is illegal or morally reprehensible, but because if she murders "this man in cold blood, it will kill (her)”.

Megan is not convinced. Possibly because she can not imagine a pain worse than what she already carries. She reminds John, “ You told me that you lost someone. Is that true”. His steady gaze is taken as a yes.

Megan relaxes enough that she actually begins to bargain and argue with him. "What do I get"? What does Gabrielle get"? "How can you sit there and tell me not to do something you know in your heart you would do too"?

John confesses. “Because, unlike you, I know what happens when you take a life. You lose a part of yourself. Not everything. Just the part that matters the most”. 

Megan asks him, “ Is that what happened to you”? John becomes visibly upset. 

Incredibly, she shows only sympathy and bonds with him. She bonds with a man who has just confessed to murder. A man who is visibly and emotionally upset because of it. 

John is giving himself to her as an example. An example of what not to do. Instead, Megan sees only someone who’s in as much pain as she is, for a similar reason. 

Megan does not see an assassin. She knows nothing about John, the assassin. She sees only a man who has lost someone close to him, just as she has. In her eyes, he is someone who killed the person responsible, just as she plans to do. Who else could he have killed? Why else would he be telling her?

Eventually, because of his slow, quiet, insistent manner, and because he suggests that he converse with Andrew in a way that would make the kidnapping moot, Megan gives in and gives up her keys to John. 

And John, the quiet stranger, thanks her.

 

Andrew  
Andrew is groggy, confused and in pain as he recovers from the taser and from being drugged. The environment he finds himself in is beautiful, peaceful, serene. He is only vaguely aware that someone else is with him.

At first, Andrew thinks he has been rescued. “That woman in my loft, she tased me”.

John answers, “Don’t worry, I told her to leave”.

Something in John’s voice alerts him. Andrew looks up. For the first time, Andrew sees the stranger sitting across from him. For the first time, Andrew sees the gun on the table. 

The stranger has an eerie stillness about him. His voice is flat and unemotional. There is a cut on his cheek.

John says, “She isn’t cut out for this. She fixes people. Not like us. We break ‘em”. 

As John, the stranger, stares at him, Andrew begins to realize the peril he is in. Andrew has no idea who “she” is or who the stranger is that brought him to this isolated place. But Andrew recognizes the cold, empty, dispassionate, gaze. Even before John continues, Andrew knows who and what is in front of him. He is in the presence of a hunter, like himself.

John confesses, “I mean, you hurt innocent people. And for a long time, I ... killed people like you”. 

For some inexplicable reason, in the same flat, unemotional voice, this stranger, this hunter, wonders out loud if people can change. He wonders if there is any “goodness” left inside him. He wonders if it even matters, any more.

Andrew doesn’t understand the game. None of the answers he gives are correct. His voice becomes choked with fear and dread. Andrew begs and pleads in an attempt to humanize himself in the eyes of the the hunter. "Please, let me go". "I can (change)". "You...you...you... don't wanna do something you're gonna regret". But Andrew knows he will fail. Just as his own victims failed.

As John, the hunter, leans over the table, hands on either side of the gun, his face a cold, hard mask of unadulterated menace, John facetiously asks, “Andrew, help me make a good decision”.

Andrew is almost paralyzed. He tries to speak, but can’t. It doesn’t matter. The only good decision is the one that is good for the hunter.

John  
John could have just taken the keys from Megan in the parking lot and been on his way. OK, he probably would have had a little talk with her like, You’re not cut out for this. Go Home. Save lives. I’ll take care of Andrew. 

He could have just said, Give me the keys to your van, Megan, or I’ll tell the policeman sitting at the end of the counter. But he didn’t do that either.

Instead, John chooses to have a conversation with Megan in the diner, a place that is public, and appears warm and friendly. His demeanor, his facial expressions, his body movements work together to be as non-threatening as possible. 

In his effort to convince Megan to abandon her murderous plan, John confesses a very intimate detail about himself. He admits that he has killed. He warns her of the horrific intrinsic damage that killing someone can bring. It is important to him that he succeed. Not just because her number came up, though that is what brought her to his attention and it is his job. But because it is personally important to him.

From the moment that John realizes exactly what Megan has planned, John becomes worried. His concern is not for Andrew. There is little interest in saving Andrew. No, John is almost desperate to save Megan. He is not worried Megan will get caught, quite the contrary. He is not worried that the murder of Andrew is morally wrong, or even against the law. John is worried about the effect that killing Andrew will have on Megan. He is worried about how she will feel, how it will change her. “It’ll destroy her”. It’ll ruin her life”. It will kill (her)”. 

John is worried that the killing of Andrew will damage Megan the same way that killing has damaged him. And under no circumstances does John want that to happen to Megan. He tells her you lose “the most important part of yourself” when you kill. When Megan asks John, “Is that what happened to you”? John becomes very upset and appears to be in emotional pain.

If it is true that people talk about what they are worried about, then, definitely, John is worried about the damage that killing people has done to him. 

.......  
Megan’s plan to kill Andrew was most likely by lethal injection. It’s the easiest and cleanest method. As a doctor, Megan would have access to the appropriate drug(s). Andrew was already incapacitated in the back of the van. It would have been simple for John to kill Andrew, if that were John’s only intent. Instead, John brings Andrew to the vacation home that Megan rented, for a conversation. 

It’s a beautiful setting. At first glance, the scene appears calm and soothing. But it’s not. The house is isolated and empty except for John and Andrew. John’s body is stiff and straight. His facial expressions are stone cold and hostile. His eyes bore right through Andrew. His voice falls flat without emotion. Everything that John does works to be as threatening as possible. ... and he does this with very little movement. Also, there is a gun on the table.

What a drastic, dramatic change from the empathetic, understanding, friendly, caring, and soft spoken, stranger of a few hours before. 

John admits to Andrew that they are similar creatures. The difference, of course, is that Andrew preys on innocent people, and John used to kill people like him. So in a very few words, John makes it known to Andrew that, John knows all about him and the evil he has done and also, that some retribution is coming his way. Though John does state, he is not sure what that retribution might be.

Immediately, after that exchange, John asks out loud if people can change. Without a whole lot of thought, John decides, nope, they can’t. Out of desperation, Andrew suggests that John is a good man. John immediately disagrees that there is any good inside him. John isn’t sure it even matters. Possibly all that matters is a good decision.

It looks like John is talking to Andrew. It sounds like John is talking to Andrew. But in actuality, John is talking to himself. He is merely using Andrew as a sounding board. What Andrew says or doesn’t say isn’t really important. 

The question is: Why the conversation? Why the angry face? Why the obvious aggression? Why discuss with a sociopath the concept of change and goodness, and whether change is possible and where goodness can be found? Why ask him for help for anything, let alone in making a good decision?

Perhaps it is to afford Andrew the opportunity to experience what his own victims might have felt. A form of Karma. What goes around comes around. Well, that certainly was accomplished. 

However, if John eventually kills Andrew, the lesson is lost. 

If John incarcerates Andrew in, say, a Mexican prison, so that he can think about what he has done for all eternity, again, the lesson is lost. Sociopaths are narcissistic. They view the world only as it relates to them. They are not capable of understanding the feelings of anyone outside of themselves. Lesson lost.

Perhaps the process of terrorizing Andrew is a kind of game such as Cat and Mouse. Batting him around a little by giving him hope and then taking it away. It doesn’t seem to be in John’s nature, however, and John does not seem to be enjoying himself very much.

Perhaps John is just trying to figure out what to do with Andrew. But again, why the anger? Why the hostile attitude? Why terrorize the man? And why the introspection?

There may be another dynamic going on. A few hours earlier, John was in an intense, intimate conversation with Megan. A very painful subject was brought to the surface. One that may have been buried for quite some time. 

Now, John is facing an emotional issue that hurts, something that he is worried about, yet a problem he does not want to deal with. 

So he’s mad. John takes it out on Andrew. Andrew deserves it. It’s possible that John knew what he was going to do with Andrew until he had the conversation with Megan. Now he feels the need to rethink what to do.

Because this painful, raw subject is right on the surface of his consciousness, at the exact moment he is faced with a predator who is similar to those he hunted in his past, John has to decide, does he go back to his old ways, or does he do something new. 

While he is making his decision, he is also contemplating the future. Can he really change? Can the wound be healed? Can he find the part of himself that he has lost? Or must he create something to replace it? Is there anything good left inside him? Can he be saved? And yes, all of this does matter.


End file.
